inSANE
by Prime627
Summary: Breakdown has a secret: what goes on on the Nemesis isn't what it seems. (Inspired by: Stitchar's fic, Bloody, a dirty griddle, and a sponge [mostly the fic])


Breakdown woke up to angry shouting. He sighed. Someone upset the doctor, he knew, and now he had to deal with it.

Knock Out was fragile physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, if someone caught him on an upswing, he was full of himself, self-obsessed, and he had a smart comment for anyone.

But based on the sound, Breakdown could tell Knock Out was not on his upswing. Primus knows he probably didn't even take his medication before he went to the MedBay.

So Breakdown got up and readjusted the patch on his optic. He hated it, but it kept the patients from staring at him.

"How dare _you_ come in here and act like you_ own the place_. This is _my_ MedBay and this is _my_ equipment. The moment you step through _that door_ you answer to _me_."

Breakdown winced. This was the hardest lecture that any inanimate object had ever received.

Knock Out smashed a beaker down on the counter and attacked the broom. In doing so, he scratched the only thing that kept him sane.

His finish.

Breakdown broke up the fight. He had to. He hated seeing his mate go beserk over a broom that had some how offended him.

"Easy, Knock Out. You got him. You got him."

Knock Out settled slightly, and then caught sight of his scratched finish. "_He scratched my paint job_!"

Breakdown sighed and plugged the buffer into the wall outlet. Primus knew how many times he had serviced the medic this way.

He caught the medic and pinned him against the wall. Then he ran the buffer over the scratches and watched them disappear while he listened to Knock Out beg and squirm under the buffer. He did what the medic wanted. It would give him a few days with the real Knock Out and not the one that tackled brooms.

While he buffed, he thought of how the war started.

Megatronus had went off the deep-end and Orion Pax had checked him into a mental asylum where Breakdown had worked. He had been gentle to the patients brought in, but there was a cruel spark among the staff and the patients ended up going mad and further off the deep-end until not even Breakdown could bring them back.

Knock Out, Starscream, and Megatronus-turned-Megatron had broken out one night and Breakdown had chased them down. He fed the fire to Megatron's desire to take over Cybertron. He buffed every bad memory out of Knock Out. He tried to help Starscream recover from his paranoid delusions, but nothing snapped Starscream to reality like trying to off Megatron. So Breakdown helped the Decepticons rise. Not only did it help them as patients, but Breakdown really saw improvement.

He enlisted Dreadwing, Airachnid, and Soundwave into the Decepticon ranks as well just so he could keep track of all of them.

Dreadwing had been abused as a sparkling and his split-spark had been taken away from him to "speed his healing". The mech was in and out of asylums from the moment he was born. No one wanted him.

Airachnid had been experimented on and she was left with a desire to kill and torture as she had been. Breakdown was the only one that seemed to keep her close to the surface and not drowning with the others in insanity and so he let her trail after him. The extra legs were creepy, but he found himself intrigued by her and he wanted to coax her closer, but she was still jumpy and twitchy.

Soundwave was really one of the most sane, but he could snap at any moment as well. He had lost his face to one of the cruel staff in the asylum where Breakdown worked. Injured patients were supposed to be taken to a MedBay where they were to be either healed and returned or dropped down the Well while they were still functioning, the "most direct way to give them back to Primus". Losing his face had made Soundwave silent, deadly, and he know found he could hold grudges even after they were settled. He had killed half the staff by just chirping at such a frequency that their audios fried. Breakdown himself had given him a visor, for Soundwave's own protection and everyone else's.

Now he was stuck on a flying warship surrounded by unstable mechs. He supposed that he could have alerted Optimus to the fact that they needed help, and fast, but he might have well just plastered MENTAL ASYLUM on the flank of the _Nemesis_. Not everyone needed to know that they were mentally unstable. Just Breakdown.

Knock Out was getting better. He was making smart comments about where the buffer was going and he was even grinding back against his mate. Breakdown sighed with relief and he pulled the mech against him.

"Good morning, doctor," he said as he kissed his audio.

Knock Out grinned and tipped his helm back, offering his neck instead. Breakdown knew that was one of his sensitive points and that Knock Out loved it when the bigger mech targetted his neck.

Neither Knock Out nor anyone else remembered what happened during their episodes. As far as the red medic was concerned, he had just woken up, and that was all that Breakdown cared about.

"Are you ready for your morning ration, doctor?"

Knock Out nodded and went back to his work table where he had an experiment set up. "Oh, who ruined it? Someone put the wrong chemical in here! What the frag? Who broke my beaker!? Where's the bro...WHO THE FRAG BROKE MY FRAGGING BROOM!? STAR_SCREAM_! _GET_ IN_ HERE_!"

Breakdown walked out to grab the Energon for him and he passed Starscream as he clutched his helm and argued with the little voices in his helm. He wished he could help the Seeker, but Starscream was put in the dark-room for a reason: no one could get inside his helm and muffle the voices.

He came back to the MedBay to find his mate like a normal medic: treating a drone for wounds. He helped his mate finish the drone, then he pressed the cube into Knock Out servos.

"Mm, where would I be without you, Breakdown?" He pressed against him while the drone hurried out.

"You would be way off the deep-end."


End file.
